Wanderers Unbeaten Run Ends In Geelong

8 minutes ago, wendybr said:

Yes! Yet again, the drumming came across especially loud and clear, and was awesome! 

Which team's supporters were doing the drumming?  It sounded to me like they were using the same kind of cymbals that Chinese Lion Dance groups do.

10 minutes ago, LeeMarvin said:

Which team's supporters were doing the drumming?  It sounded to me like they were using the same kind of cymbals that Chinese Lion Dance groups do.

Well, I thought that all the drumming I could hear on the TV was from the RBB.

I can't say I heard RBB chants, tho.

I did hear the WU chant...that one we used and abandoned, that's used everywhere "From Parra to the Hills..." etc was our version.

From what I saw of the WU active group, they did OK. Especially since they're at a venue as suitable for football as Soulless was. 

38 minutes ago, LeeMarvin said:

How many people do you reckon before this game thought to themselves "I am going to put on a multibet.  WU will win and Durante and Appiah to score"?

Oh yeah, and how awkward did the commentators sound not knowing what to call Western United?  There is definitely a word or two missing from that club's name for it to make sense.

Western United sounds like the name of a bank or insurance group. Could have used Barwon, Ballarine or Corio between Western and United which i think are all names given to that greater area, although Corio is the name of the bay Geelong sits on.

1 hour ago, Smoggy said:

Western United sounds like the name of a bank or insurance group. Could have used Barwon, Ballarine or Corio between Western and United which i think are all names given to that greater area, although Corio is the name of the bay Geelong sits on.

My hunch is its a catch all interim name. Once they move to Tarneit they'll slot 'Melbourne' in there and ditch the Geelong area essentially

Western Melbourne United

2 hours ago, LeeMarvin said:

Agree.

Glad I am not the only one who thought so

8 hours ago, ZachMercer said:

My "favorite" parts of the game.

1. VAR that doesn't understand 5th grader geometry.

2. Slaters inability to have a single positive, constructive thing to say about our team or imports ever. It literally makes watching a poor performance feel like your spending 'quality' time with your step father.

3. The fact that we have multiple bundesliga standard players but play like the Cowra U12 district team. They didn't have Berisha and lost Kone. We should have punished them.

4. That Diamanti is allowed to put on multiple Oscar performances, and put the refs right in his pocket. Just give him the whistle.

5. Rudan. That guys a pr*ck. Always has been, irrespective of whether he poached players in contract. Hate losing to that guy.

6. That every former player has something to prove against us, and often does.

And what the **** have the Cowra U12 district team done to deserve this bullshit?

2 hours ago, matty said:

My hunch is its a catch all interim name. Once they move to Tarneit they'll slot 'Melbourne' in there and ditch the Geelong area essentially

Western Melbourne United

The won’t move to Tarneit it ain’t going to happen they will be defunct inside of 2 seasons or give their license to somebody else 

6 hours ago, 102megan said:

Let’s do that then!  How much are HD Go-Pros?? 😄

About $700. Problem is gopro live streaming is very clunky. Heck, even standard recording is sketchy. 

6 hours ago, wendybr said:

Great post, as well as an enertaining one Zach (no 3 is hilarious)

As for point 5...

There are now 2 very different black marks against Rudan which are certainly unsavoury, but why do you say he was always " a pr*ck"? Serious question.

For No 2, I will be very happy to prove myself wrong - VERY happy, because I'm curious about this too.

But if I can muster the energy, I'm going to jot down the negative statements (against WSW) and the postive statements uttered by some of the commentators who lots of you guys consider biased. Slater being at the top of the pile.

I hear mixed comments about any and all teams, from the commentators... all of them. I just don't get the strength of the views expressed here about their obvious biases.

Sounds like I'm the only one who doesn't hear it... but I'm going to specifically listen.

Fwiw. Lol.

 

Point 5. Purely based on my experiences from my son's time playing at Olympic.

Walking around like a peacock, chewing gum in his loafers and chinos, strutting that BDE with the lads, doesn't have time for a photo with a kid unless mommy is fit, weekend drive is 3 years wage for someone, a middle aged eshay that knows all the dancers names... you know, basically a Telco sales manager.

1 hour ago, DontCallMeJacko said:

And what the **** have the Cowra U12 district team done to deserve this bullshit?

Given I grew up on a farm in Forbes and played there football/Galic football team as a kid, I have every right to make comparison. 

At the very least we won't be any lower than 4th after next weekend.

For those wondering "wtf" with the VAR intervention, here is explanation on the post game show 

In short, the technology used to create the 3D lines do not have the sufficient cameras in order to determine "goal/no goal" only offside. It isn't able to properly place the (blue) line on the back end of the line. The second issue using your "eye" to guess a decision like the above is the camera angle can be very misleading, look at the decision made in the EPL Spurs vs Sheffield game last night to demonstrate this point.

8 minutes ago, Prydzopolis said:

For those wondering "wtf" with the VAR intervention, here is explanation on the post game show 

In short, the technology used to create the 3D lines do not have the sufficient cameras in order to determine "goal/no goal" only offside. It isn't able to properly place the (blue) line on the back end of the line. The second issue using your "eye" to guess a decision like the above is the camera angle can be very misleading, look at the decision made in the EPL Spurs vs Sheffield game last night to demonstrate this point.

 

Dear God. Look how thick our line is compared to the EPL! That's how you can tell where the dollars are spent. Our blue line is about 60mm, or 1/3 of the ball. Super accurate.

11 hours ago, ZachMercer said:

6. That every former player has something to prove against us, and often does.

Kubi needed to prove a point that he was still worth a contract at AL level, incredible that the last time he played was January 2018 & only got a last minute deal. In fact, the whole game he was dreadfully woeful & the amount of times he lost basic control of the ball was unbelievable.

Perhaps it was fate that he scored in that manner, had the ball been passed or meant for him he'd have probably lost control of it, however the ball played in was a shanked shot & probably a situation where he didn't have to think & instinct took over.

A goal they deserved & saved the game being decided by a blow up (well still been a blow up but not to the same degree) because of VAR.

4 minutes ago, ZachMercer said:

Dear God. Look how thick our line is compared to the EPL! That's how you can tell where the dollars are spent. Our blue line is about 60mm, or 1/3 of the ball. Super accurate.

I would only compare an offside decision to offside decision. It's the same software developed by Hawkeye that they use in the EPL & Aleague.

11 minutes ago, ZachMercer said:

Dear God. Look how thick our line is compared to the EPL! That's how you can tell where the dollars are spent. Our blue line is about 60mm, or 1/3 of the ball. Super accurate.

That tends to happen when you use MS Paint to draw lines.....

58 minutes ago, Prydzopolis said:

Kubi needed to prove a point that he was still worth a contract at AL level.

I maintain if Jurman was there he doesn’t even get that shot off, I’m not hanging out PZ to dry because of it but I’m watching closely now to see if it happens again in future. 

1 hour ago, mack said:

At the very least we won't be any lower than 4th after next weekend.

How do u plan to spend the weekend off Mack 

Bit of fishing, fortnite or flying a kite?

6 minutes ago, GunnerWanderer said:

I maintain if Jurman was there he doesn’t even get that shot off, I’m not hanging out PZ to dry because of it but I’m watching closely now to see if it happens again in future. 

 

How do u plan to spend the weekend off Mack 

Bit of fishing, fortnite or flying a kite?

I might go fishing, play fortnite and fly a kite ( the last time I flew a kite on a beach it arrowed straight in to some bald guys head and he nearly kicked the **** out me)

Performance:

Interesting that the boss went for experience over youth. No Tass, no grozos & went for our experienced visa players. We joke that we played well in the first 10 minutes but was the only time in the game we moved the ball quickly, had intensity & held the ball well. It obviously helps that we scored during this period.

We essentially then almost turn a switch. Momentum naturally changes as the opposition now have to score to get back into the game but we are very comfortable this season (1) Sitting deep to soak up pressure (2) playing on the counter but it changes our mindset in the way we approach the game. We have our team set up defensively well but have issues with our midfield as well as up front & with the current formation that allows us to get our best players on the park

It is curious, our recruitment & preseason were focused on a 3 CB system but unable to find a type of striker to play similar to the way Mo Adam was used so successfully during preseason. We signed AM so late, wasn't the type of profile to fit the 3-5-2 system we were playing & then we lose pole. Changing to 2 CB system means we now have depth in the CB's when we need it in the CM positions.

Is it odd that AMFG played a deeper role? Yes, especially considering his profile & hope we try another solution but it does make sense. You want Duke up front for two reasons, 1, he is a little under done fitness wise, 2, he is our inform goal scorer & we want him closer to goal. Mueller is under done, fitness wise he wouldn't last 45 minutes with all the defensive work he would be doing playing a deeper role. You also want AM on the field, playing him deeper is the trade off.

All is not lost but we need to find a different solution to get the best out our players. We have a solid preseason, we have a good mix of youth & experience, we have 5 quality visa players but the question is how do we unlock it on the field. Pertinent questions: 1) If we play just Baccus & Primin in CM, we will continue to get dominated & still be a predominantly counter attack based side 2) Do we revert to a 3 CB system to find a better solution 3) What formation will get the best out of Mueller & AM? 4) Need to get the right mix of senior & youth players 5) Lots of pressure on Babbel to come up with a new plan but is he capable of finding a solution?

Let's be honest, at least he isn't popa where we wouldn't change formation no matter the circumstance but he isn't that good to be able to change things on the go. If he was, he probably wouldn't be in Australia right now. I am willing to back him to get it right, there has been a substantial improvement in our side & there has been signs in the CCM & victory (don't forget preseason too) that our team can play at a much higher level. When you consider that both Duke & KY both had injuries late in preseason, both underdone. Plus AM & Mueller both came late & underdone both from a team cohesion & fitness perspective. This will be a welcome break for the team & manager to get things right.

Smogster right of course, possibly the worst time to have a break from players and managers point of view, they probably would rather sort it out in a match than stewing over it for 2 weeks.

33 minutes ago, GunnerWanderer said:

How do u plan to spend the weekend off Mack 

Bit of fishing, fortnite or flying a kite?

Doing some light parkour before some base jumping and finishing off with some x games snowboarding qualifiers.

The next game against City will tell us how we are really travelling.  Sure we have been poor, CCM troubled us (and have troubled plenty of others as well), We got over Victory but they have shown how disappointing they are going to be this season, lucky Derby win (but who cares), a snore draw vs Roar but they are going to have everyone behind the ball all year and a 2-1 defeat away to Western who were much better than us BUT it was only 2-1 so its been a funny start.  Before a ball was kicked I would of taken 10 points into the Bye round with Ziegler, Muller, Meir pretty must just turning up at ours but with the way they are playing wow we are lucky to have 3pts so is that a good thing or a bad thing??

Anyway like I said next game vs City will be telling, a week off to get all the new ones together, get over niggles and get some combinations and City have been far and away the best team so far all season and we will really know where we are at and what sort of season we will have after this one.

We've been second best in every match, bar Victory. 

Fingers crossed the manager can turn it around. 

. 

. 

I’m getting withdrawals.

I can’t remember the last time the German spin doctor and his ashamed-to-be-white wanna-be-german sidekick told everyone that we’re gonna win the league.

9 hours ago, ZachMercer said:

Dear God. Look how thick our line is compared to the EPL! That's how you can tell where the dollars are spent. Our blue line is about 60mm, or 1/3 of the ball. Super accurate.

6 hours ago, Beer said:

I’m getting withdrawals.

I can’t remember the last time the German spin doctor and his ashamed-to-be-white wanna-be-german sidekick told everyone that we’re gonna win the league.

Ipse Dixit.

Babbel is usually one of the more open managers with the media.

14 minutes ago, Carns said:

Babbel is usually one of the more open managers with the media.

 

i mean i know we lost but that is a really odd reaction he must have been ropeable, feel bad for Daniel too

10 hours ago, Prydzopolis said:

Smogster right of course, possibly the worst time to have a break from players and managers point of view, they probably would rather sort it out in a match than stewing over it for 2 weeks.

Reckon they will organize some sort of practice match on the the bye weekend to try things out with the formation?

10 hours ago, mack said:

Doing some light parkour before some base jumping and finishing off with some x games snowboarding qualifiers.

Totally radical dude. YOLO!

Looks like the team and coaching staff enjoyed themselves as much as the away fans.

Geelong is a shithole - don't blame the coach and team wanting to get out of there as quickly as possible.